Saturday, May 24, 2014

Feat Improvements - Assassin report

Senior Designer Cirith opened a proverbial can of worms by asking the players to post suggestions about feats and perks.... which is awesome! Because of lack of class changes AOC grew very stale since ROGS and nothing pumps players more than breathing new life in their old character (Blizzard knows this very well as every single WoW expansion resulted in total skills overhaul).

Along with the class balance changes (which are still in the works) we also want to be able to provide a little something for every class, in the form of reworking some of the most undesirable feats for that class (disclaimer these may not all be in the same patch(es)).

We would be interested in seeing what the communities input is on this, so what we would like to find out is what do you think is the most undesirable feat for your class and why?

We'd like to use a format something like this.

Class : classFeat Name : name (tree/aa location)What is undesirable about it : reason why you think this feat is undesirable.What would you like to see changed about it : in an ideal world how would this feat behave (changes that are stand alone and do not change core mechanics are more likely to be considered).

As time progresses we will start finalizing which feats we'll take a look at and start focusing any feedback when that becomes appropriate.

I have made my own list of the issues and fixes. Personally I miss the old Lotus/General and Corruption/General builds with Hybrid being just one of possible, viable speccs. Of course this is a raw draft as I can't do any number crunching in order to balance things out.

CORE ISSUE: SOUL SHARDS

Soul shards were originally designed to be a “limiting factor” in assassin’s game play. The devs decided that assassin was so powerful when unrestricted that a “power cap” in a form of limited soul shard resource is required. Since patch 1.6 the game went through a lot of changes, especially CC revamp, which made the soul shard system outdated and mostly pointless.

Managing soul shards is a chore, it is not fun, and having the system in place is grossly limiting any variation in assassin’s builds. To perform adequately in solo pve and pvp you need to feed your character a constant stream of shards which is only possible with both Crystalized Lotus Extract feat (lotus tree) and Necrotic Empowerment (corruption tree) feated in. This pretty much creates a scenario in which only hybrid builds are viable and there is little to none variations between those builds (otherwise you are risking severally gimping your performance without making the game play more “fun” or interesting).

Assassin also has no means of “generating” soul shards outside the natural regen (which is absurdly slow), feats (Crystalized Lotus Extract, Necrotic Empowerment) and a perk (Castration combo). Especially assassin should have means of “capturing” additional shards in an active manner.

Ideas how to address this:

1/Bring back the old mechanic of generating 1 soul shard upon stealth attack. Since stealth is back to the PVP this would be pretty nice way of generating additional shards

2/ Bring back the old mechanic of Relish in Death feat where assassin was capturing soul shard upon fatality and team fatality - another way of adding the shards,

3/ Allow assassin to “consume” his remaining energy to get additional shard. This would promote “last stand” type of decisions where assassin can chose to run using his energy or take a risk, use up his energy and try to finish the opponent with his shards.

CORE ISSUE: HYBRID BUILDS ARE KING

Assassin can get all the best stuff offered by both trees via hybrid build. There is no need to pick and chose because you can afford everything you need from lotus and corruption tree (and general even!). More so Corruption tree doesn’t have any means of dealing with casters (very low protection, no way to mitigate spells) and Lotus tree doesn’t have any self heal (Avatar of Death corruption tree is a powerful health tap) which makes it super ineffective both in solo pve and pvp. Lotus tree used to have Golden Lotus feat that gave the class a self heal (heal over time effect) which made Lotus/General builds possible. Without self heal it is very hard and ineffective to go against melee classes as lotus (especially tanks). Self heal should be deep in lotus tree so it is unavailable to Hybrid. Arcane Backlash seems like a perfect candidate for this.

PERKS:

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Master Assassin (golden perk)

What is undesirable about it : once perk is equipped and pvp T3/T2 armor is used this perk will grant 117% (well over 100% anyway) tenacity. Tenacity makes crits unavoidable with 100% chance so added 17% does absolutely nothing and it is a gross overkill. In other words: the game punishes you for using pvp gear with this perk even thou it is a perk for pvp only.

What would you like to see changed about it : perk should have tenacity amount lowered to be 100% chance with full pvp gear (it will always give 50% tenacity to pve gear since pve gear has 0 tenacity) and the loss of tenacity should be compensated with a second stat (penetration, critical damage rating) or a high chance to crit with combo opener (this would promote landing combo openers instead of preloading every single combo).

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Chocking powder (golden perk)

What is undesirable about it : you have to stand perfectly still to be able to use it, it requires 2 souls shards to be used

What would you like to see changed about it : This perk should be usable during movement. It shouldn’t have any soul shard requirement as it is not nearly as powerful interrupt as other classes have.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Castration combo (silver perk)

What is undesirable about it : very long animation

What would you like to see changed about it : this combo has absurdly long animation which roots assassin in place and makes him very vulnerable to counterattacks. Change animation to Lethargy rank III.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Disfigure (silver perk)

What is undesirable about it : it burns stamina and mana on target and returns some stamina to assassin. The mana and stamina burn are very low and stamina returned to assassin is useless to him (such is stamina to all classes in post running energy revamp). The perk is also bugged: when assassin is doing the stealth attack it deals additional 1 x Face Stab miasma. However if you have disfigure perk equipped the x 1 Face Stab from stealth attack won't remove mana or stamina as it should with that perk.

What would you like to see changed about it : it should add more damage to Face Stab (since this perk supposedly upgrades it) instead of mana and stamina burn (assassin already has 2 other feats that do exactly the same) it should burn energy (used for running) and feeding some burned energy to assassin.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Dance of Death (silver perk)

What is undesirable about it : it gives very small hit rating debuff that also needs to be triggered via face stab. The hit rating debuff is negligible as both PVE and PVP gear is currently LOADED with hit rating, also assassin doesn’t have enough evade rating on his own to take advantage of this.

What would you like to see changed about it : - make the hit rating debuff scale more with added points, currently 5/5 doesn't give enough,

- make the dance of death base poison consumable with ANY miasma, not just face stab. The problem is that this perk is too cumbersome to use because it works only with face stab, if any miasma like soul strike or lotus dart would trigger it then it would be faster and more efficient to use.

- the description on the perk says that consuming the base posion with face stab gives damage that scales with points. The damage is only 432 which is not nearly enough for a perk

COMBOS:

Class : Assassin

Combo Name : Lethargy (basic combo)

What is undesirable about it : does very small damage, the animation is long and the debuff is laughable (-6% melee damage)

What would you like to see changed about it : Assassin already has a combo that debuffs both melee and magic damage for -30% (Atrophy, feated in combo). Lethargy combo doubles Atrophy in that regard, but is much muuuuuch worst. Change animation of all lethargy combos to Lethargy rank I animation (its very fast) and make this combo apply snare instead of -6% melee damage. Snare effect also fits perfectly the name of this combo.

Class : Assassin

Combo Name : grim corruption (basic combo)

What is undesirable about it : this combo adds both snare and basic poison on the target. As soon as basic poison is consumed via miasma (and this is why you are using grim corruption in the first place) the snare is also removed. It is counter productive to have both snare and basic poison in one effect because you usually want to consume basic poison as soon as possible.

What would you like to see changed about it : remove the snare effect completely from Grim Corruption and give it to Lethargy combo.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Flurry of Blows (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : too low offhand chance (only 5% more than deft hands which gives passively +10% offhand chance).

What would you like to see changed about it : buff offhand chance to 25%

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Deft hands (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : too low offhand chance

What would you like to see changed about it : buff offhand chance to 15%

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Cat’s Paw (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : too low evade chance (40%) This feat remained unchanged since 2008. Since then massive hit rating introduced to post ROGS PVE and PVP gear makes 40% evade chance very low.

What would you like to see changed about it : Buff the evade chance to 60% or add 10% evade chance passive effect to the feat.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Lotus Coated Dart (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : Every other miasma has a second effect (when used without base poison present) that is usefull. Soul Strike gives protection debuff, Face Stab deals damage 1 x (which still can go way beyond 1200 dmg) Lotus Dart deals…about 150 damge.

What would you like to see changed about it : add debuff or other effect to Lotus Dart. This could be 20% spell fizzle chance.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Dull Pain (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : this feat mitigates every type of magic damage except holy. It is counter intuitive and there is no reason why assassin should be at disadvantage against certain class.

What would you like to see changed about it : add holy damage mitigation.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Flesh Rot and Lotus Weapon (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : very low damage coupled with low proc rate

What would you like to see changed about it : add more damage per tick, increase proc chance and procs per minute

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Snap Kick (Lotus Tree)

What is undesirable about it : Snap Kick combo removes 1 soul shard upon usage

What would you like to see changed about it : remove soul shard consumption. There is no reason why using snap kick should be penalized via soul shard consumption. Snap Kick used to be instant pre CC revamp, but now it is 1 step combo that is single target (has very small cone so it’s hard to KB more than 1 target) and is limited by weapon range which in case of daggers is already shortest range in game.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Lotus Overload (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : it has no visual effect

What would you like to see changed about it : it is a pretty powerful effect against casters and it procs quite often. Visual indication that Lotus Overload is active should help casters to make more tactical choices (like saving up their CCs). Visual indication would also help assassins to make more informed choices in both pvp and pve (like not using dull pain because lotus overload is active).

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Impede Essence (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : it removes mana and stamina from the target. Stamina is already useless to all classes and the mana drain is not big enough to justify 5/5 investment

What would you like to see changed about it : added points should also improve Impede Life combo’s damage, more mana drain

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Opportunistic Strike (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : it is a stun that: costs 2 soul shards, has casting time, roots assassin in place AND is limited by weapon range so with daggers distance wise it is shortest spell in game.

What would you like to see changed about it : make it a 10s buff that gives you 100% chance for your combo opener to crit and 100% chance for your next successful combo to stun your opponent.

What would you like to see changed about it : make corrupted body stack evade chance on hit. Assassin because of his low armor and low HP has big issues with surviving large scale battles (especially if targeted by ranger).

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Arcane Backlash (Lotus tree)

Suggested name change: Golden Lotus Leaves

(it is lore based, In “Xuthal of the Dusk” REH story Conan drank golden lotus wine that healed his almost mortal wounds).

What is undesirable about it : it decreases spell damage, but assassin has soooo many spell protection stuff (Lotus overload, dull pain, lotus tainted blood, natural protection, protection wards passive perks, chromatic ward). If you do 3/3 Arcane investment and 1/3 corrupted body then you also get arcane backlash which does very very small damage (unchanged since 1.5).

What would you like to see changed about it : another spell protection is not needed. Lotus tree self heal IS needed (see Core issue: Hybrid Builds). Change it to give heal over time effect.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Lotus Overdose (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : it renews stamina which is useless post energy revamp, doesn’t have any visual effect

What would you like to see changed about it : add visual effect (Avatar of Death on corruption tree has very clear visual), remove stamina regeneration and add energy regeneration, remove +10% scale (no idea what the devs had in mind with this 0_o).

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Crippling Weakness (Lotus tree)

Suggested name change: Exploit Weakness

What is undesirable about it : it adds more snare power to grim corruption and this combo adds both snare and basic poison on the target. As soon as basic poison is consumed via miasma (and this is why you are using grim corruption in the first place) the snare is also removed. You hardly ever will take advantage of snare power and it is very costly.

What would you like to see changed about it : restore all time Lotus tree favorite mechanic of dealing more DOT and OFFHAND damage the closer the target is to death (it worked like that in 2008). It promoted switching targets in order to maximize your damage output and it made target assisting in pvp rewarding. Also Lotus tree needs more damage compared to Corruption or Hybrid and it capitalizes on Lotus tree two themes: dots (Flesh rot, lotus weapon) and offhand (Flurry of Blows, deft hand).

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Kidney Shots (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : it doesn’t do what the description says. The description is “assassin attacks deal additional piercing damage”, but instead feat gives weapon damage buff. Piercing damage is a relict of pre-1.5 stats revamp.

What would you like to see changed about it : keep the weapon damage buff but also give armor penetration rating, Lotus tree doesn’t have any penetration or armor debuff which makes it very hard to play against armored classes.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Curse of the Lotus (Lotus tree)

What is undesirable about it : lack of any visual effect

What would you like to see changed about it : add visual effect, it is supposed to be lotus bomb so perhaps a greenish dust/smoke?

CORRUPTION TREE

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Unholy Strength (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : it upgrades swift strikes combo damage only by 5% while Lotus tree’s Swift Ending upgrades SDS and GC by 10%

What would you like to see changed about it : Give it 10% Increased damage to Swift Strikes and Lethargy

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Accelerated (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : Lotus tree has too many means of dealing with spell damage and Corruption tree has too many means of closing in with the enemy.

What would you like to see changed about it : Switch feats around to promote more balanced experience with single tree builds and it won’t affect hybrid builds. Switch Dull Pain with Accelerated. Add small chance to resist snare or root to compensate for 2 souls hard requirement.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Dark Weapon, Dread Weapon (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : too low damage, too low proc chance

What would you like to see changed about it : upgrade both damage and proc chance

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Poisoned Blades (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : 20% fizzle chance upgrade to bad combo (lethargy). Not worth it, ineffective, not needed.

What would you like to see changed about it : bring back old mechanic of removing directional shielding. This should remove opponents shields for couple of seconds.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Blind Side + Bewilder (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : Blindside combo on it’s own is a two step, low damage and long animation and it gives some stamina which is useless in post energy revamp situation. Bewilder upgrade removes stamina and mana so it does EXACTLY the same what Impede Essence in Lotus tree. There shouldn’t be two feats that do same thing (and are both bad at it).

What would you like to see changed about it : Both the combo and it’s upgrade are not needed in their current form or even with huge boost to damage (it would cause combo bloat as assassin already has huge amount of them: Swift Strikes, Slow Death Strikes, Grim Corruption, Lethargy, Atrophy, Sins of Flesh, Impeded Life, Castration, Snap Kick, Death Whirlwind, Grave Blossom). Remove it completely and use the freed points to create something new from scratch.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Burden to Bear (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : you only need 1/3 point added to make it effective. Adding more points increases proc rare very little and it is not worth it.

What would you like to see changed about it : increase proc chance upgrade value.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Soul Corruption (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : very low shard regeneration upgrade

What would you like to see changed about it : major boost to shard regeneration rate

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Corrupted Poison (Corruption tree)

Suggested name change: Unholy Armor

What is undesirable about it : it adds more snare duration to grim corruption and this combo adds both snare and basic poison on the target. As soon as basic poison is consumed via miasma (and this is why you are using grim corruption in the first place) the snare is also removed. You hardly ever will take advantage of snare duration and it is very costly.

What would you like to see changed about it : Bring back Unholy Armor that gives assassin more armor to survive in large scale battles. This feat is deep enough in Corruption tree to prevent abusing it via hybrid builds.

Class : Assassin

Feat Name : Vampyric Nature (Corruption tree)

What is undesirable about it : lack of visual effect

What would you like to see changed about it : add visual effect

ROGUE GENERAL TREE

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Quick Recovery

What is undesirable about it : It adds stamina regeneration, stamina is not a problem in post energy revamp reality

What would you like to see changed about it : change it to energy recovery

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Second Wind + Endurance (general tree)

What is undesirable about it : Awfully long cool down, stamina recovery (not needed!) and costly upgrade.

What would you like to see changed about it : cut the cool down to 3 minutes, Endurance should upgrade Second Wind with more energy recovery and passive 5% speed bonus for the duration of Second Wind.

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Keen Senses (general tree)

What is undesirable about it : not worth even 1 point

What would you like to see changed about it : allow for search to be usable in stealth (so you can search without leaving the stealth yourself).

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Acrobat (general tree)

What is undesirable about it : too low evade bonus

What would you like to see changed about it : major boost to evade chance

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Swift Shadows (general tree)

What is undesirable about it : both the stealthing bonus and stealthing speed bonus are negligible.

What would you like to see changed about it : boost the bonuses considerably.

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Ambush

What is undesirable about it : stealth requirement, no other function

What would you like to see changed about it : remove stealth requirement as mandatory to use, make ambush kill minions also in pvp (like killing Demonologist minion). If Ambush is used in stealth it should give weapon damage bonus for 3 seconds.

Class : Rogue Archetype

Feat Name : Mountaineer (General tree)

What is undesirable about it : there is no use for climbing bonus

What would you like to see changed about it : add some small bonus to resist root, snare, knock back and stun effects.

Here are most common assassin builds http://aochideout.blogspot.com/2013/03/guide-assassin-builds.html (pretty much all viable ones) so the devs can check how the changes will affect current speccs in both PVE and PVP.

Can't remember when, but there was a feated ability, deep in Corruption, that converted all the physical damage caused by the assassin's attacks to unholy damage so we could slice the heavy armored tanks to pieces with ease. I used to like that one. (Have no idea why I'm stating this, oh nostalgia).

About Me:

"The blond myth of Aquilonia"
Playing Age of Conan since may 2008. I have been PvPing with assassin class throught out all the changes and revamps.Currently playing on Fury PVP server. Whisper /w Slith to contact me.